"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Monday, July 2, 2012

This Day in History: Jul 2, 1937: Amelia Earhart disappears

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart
and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island
in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when
they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global
journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227
nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast
Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as
she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost
and running low on fuel. Soon after, she probably tried to ditch the
Lockheed in the ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.

Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas,
in 1897. She took up aviation at the age of 24 and later gained
publicity as one of the earliest female aviators. In 1928, the publisher
George P. Putnam invited her to become the first woman to fly across
the Atlantic Ocean. The previous year, Charles A. Lindbergh had flown
solo nonstop across the Atlantic, and Putnam had made a fortune off
Lindbergh's autobiographical book We. In June 1928, Earhart and
two men flew from Newfoundland, Canada, to Wales, Great Britain.
Although Earhart's only function during the crossing was to keep the
plane's log, the flight won her great fame, and Americans were enamored
of the daring young pilot. The three were honored with a ticker-tape
parade in New York, and "Lady Lindy," as Earhart was dubbed, was given a White House reception by President Calvin Coolidge.

Earhart
wrote a book about the flight for Putnam, whom she married in 1931, and
gave lectures and continued her flying career under her maiden name. On
May 20, 1932, she took off alone from Newfoundland in a Lockheed Vega
on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman. She was bound
for Paris but was blown off course and landed in Ireland on May 21
after flying more than 2,000 miles in just under 15 hours. It was the
fifth anniversary of Lindbergh's historic flight, and before Earhart no
one had attempted to repeat his solo transatlantic flight. For her
achievement, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress.
Three months later, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop
across the continental United States.

In 1935, in the first flight of its kind, she flew solo from Wheeler Field in Honolulu to Oakland, California,
winning a $10,000 award posted by Hawaiian commercial interests. Later
that year, she was appointed a consultant in careers for women at Purdue
University, and the school bought her a modern Lockheed Electra
aircraft to be used as a "flying laboratory."

On March 17, 1937,
she took off from Oakland and flew west on an around-the-world attempt.
It would not be the first global flight, but it would be the
longest--29,000 miles, following an equatorial route. Aboard her
Lockheed were Frederick Noonan, her navigator and a former Pan American
pilot, and co-pilot Harry Manning. After resting and refueling in
Honolulu, the trio prepared to resume the flight. However, while taking
off for Howland Island, Earhart ground-looped the plane on the runway,
perhaps because of a blown tire, and the Lockheed was seriously damaged.
The flight was called off, and the aircraft was shipped back to
California for repairs.

In May, Earhart flew the newly rebuilt
plane to Miami, from where Noonan and she would make a new
around-the-world attempt, this time from west to east. They left Miami
on June 1, and after stops in South America, Africa, India, and
Southeast Asia, they arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. About
22,000 miles of the journey had been completed, and the last 7,000 miles
would all be over the Pacific Ocean. The next destination was Howland
Island, a tiny U.S.-owned island that was just a few miles long. The
U.S. Department of Commerce had a weather observation station and a
landing strip on the island, and the staff was ready with fuel and
supplies. Several U.S. ships, including the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, were deployed to aid Earhart and Noonan in this difficult leg of their journey.

As the Lockheed approached Howland Island, Earhart radioed the Itasca
and explained that she was low on fuel. However, after several hours of
frustrating attempts, two-way communication was only briefly
established, and the Itasca was unable to pinpoint the Lockheed's location or offer navigational information. Earhart circled the Itasca's
position but was unable to sight the ship, which was sending out miles
of black smoke. She radioed "one-half hour fuel and no landfall" and
later tried to give information on her position. Soon after, contact was
lost, and Earhart presumably tried to land the Lockheed on the water.

If
her landing on the water was perfect, Earhart and Noonan might have had
time to escape the aircraft with a life raft and survival equipment
before it sank. An intensive search of the vicinity by the Coast Guard
and U.S. Navy found no physical evidence of the fliers or their plane.
Additional searches through the years have likewise failed to find any
trace of the Lockheed or of Earhart and Noonan, who almost certainly
perished at sea.

check out c-sapn3 with one of the leading researchers lecture on her disapperance. Seems like he has some good info and was a FAA and Air force crash investigator. He also is not premoting a book or anything so leads to some credibility too. here is the link.http://www.c-span.org/History/Events/Disappearance-of-Amelia-Earhart/10737432912-2/

well some of the things are true but some don,t give in ouf evidence i would love to agree about things others said but you got to give me more evidence commming from a fifth grader i want to do a timeline but this could be the things i need.